10/7/18:
"Doubles Titles, M-Dub Part 1 and more at C.G., Riz hosts 4 at NTC!":
There were basically two sessions of GTA Sunday Tennis, but that hardly tells the entire story. In a season filled with rainy Sundays and broken plans, it had seemed that we finally escaped much of that mess as we moved from summer to fall. The forecast for this Sunday had been a clear one as the week progressed…until a little bit of doubt crept into it the night before.
Saturday (the day before) did not go as predicted either as what was only supposed to be morning drizzle instead became an all-day mist (yet the GTA Mixed Doubles Championship Rematch and a session at Nutley Tennis Club carried on nonetheless).
Getting back to Sunday morning and "Hollywood" Frank Samara (as the groundskeeper of NTC) is able to successfully get all the courts there open as clay courts are better able to absorb light rain than hard courts can (it seems to be the opposite for recovering from flash downpours, however).
As soon as Frank finished around 8:45am, he sent text messages to both "TNT" Tim Nguyen and Laurie "L-Boogie" Boughton to see what the court conditions were like at The Park Ave. Courts (as Samara knew they would be trying to get their portion of the annual M-Dub Mixed Doubles Tournament off to an earlier start of 9am rather than the planned 10am start for the other two portions of the event at Albion Park in Clifton and The Cedar Grove Courts).
The response from both was basically, "not good…still wet…not sure if and when we can begin." Between all the back and forth on the text messages, it was not until 9am that Samara instructed both of them to send out an e-mail to the league that the entire M-Dub Mixed Doubles Tournament should be postponed until the following Sunday (the 14th).
Of course, all of this last-minute decision-making did not come soon enough to stop some of the players set to compete at Nutley from arriving there (some coming from far away…two of them recruited by "The Marathon Woman" Doinks Srinivasan and they each would have been making their official GTA Debut). This was an unfortunate by-product of the iffy weather and the uncertainty in how to adjust to it all.
In the midst of all this, Doinks thought it best to try to soldier on up at Cedar Grove. The GTA Doubles Championship Match was already underway up there as the GTA Doubles Champions: "NC-17" Nick Caputo and "The Lumberjack" Ryan Pienciak were putting their Titles on the line against the 2018 Monk Memorial Champs: "Eddie Money" Edgar Valencia and Arunraj "Air" Nair. The guys had spent over an hour drying and clearing one of the courts so they could still play their match there (originally planned for an 8:30am start as three of the competitors – Nick, Ryan and Arun were all also scheduled to be in the following M-Dub tourney as well).
Plus, "The Riz" John Rizzo was also on his way toward Cedar Grove to assist Doinks in the running of the tourney there. It is at this time that I should thank the two of them as there was so much behind the scenes calls, texts and e-mails going on all of Saturday and deep into the evening to recruit more players for this tourney.
Initially, we had a problem of having too many men and not enough women. So Doinks reached out to women that she plays with in other groups/leagues to get some to come on board for this tournament. John also rustled up another two via Nick (his wife and her friend). The problem then shifted to having too many women and not enough men (now there's a night club scenario that I would love to see!) which led to Rizzo reaching out to male players in the league.
Meanwhile, I was directing traffic shifting players from location to location to try to even out all the numbers accordingly (two that were the most flexible…pretty much down for anything that came their way were "SWAT" Rich Liu and "Spin Doctor" Dan Martinelli…so I thank them, too!). By the end of the night, we finally had all the numbers evened up everywhere (16 players forming eight teams at Cedar Grove, eight players forming four teams at Nutley and another eight players forming four teams in Clifton).
And then Mother Nature decided to rear her ugly head once more to further mess with our season and that is what led to the debacle that unfolded early Sunday morning. While handing out my "thank you" notes, I would be remiss to not include Tim and Laurie as well as they did what they could to try to handle the situation there.
So, we completely shut down the M-Dub at Nutley and Clifton. Some players set to compete at Cedar Grove decided not to play due to the fear of wet/slick courts…and I do not blame them. Thus, what would have been an eight-team section of the tourney there instead turned into a six-team format (more on that later).
Gratitude must also be paid to all the crew up at Cedar Grove who managed to clear and dry two (maybe it was three?) of the courts. Doinks recognized, in particular, Frank Hohorst who came equipped with a leaf blower to dry the courts quicker. I have called him "Hydro" all along, but this time he was just the opposite! I've never been a big fan of that moniker anyway, so now we will call him "The Heater!"
Beyond the tourney, there was further action at Cedar Grove as reported by "The Roz" Jeff Rozner, "Ice Berg" Scott Bergenfeld and "J-Rod" Joe Rodrigues. And then The Riz did double-duty (he did a whole lot of duty this weekend…LOL!) as he later went to NTC to host another session there.
But before we get to the M-Dub, we first must get that GTA Championship Match result from Ryan.
The Cedar Grove Results:
GTA Doubles Championship Match:
Nick Caputo/Ryan Pienciak over Edgar Valencia/Arunraj Nair, 6-0, 6-0, to complete their fifth successful GTA Doubles Championship defense of their first reign! No Aces.
Samara's Notes: Wow! Such dominance! When I replied to Ryan that it was "quick and painless," he reminded me of the hour's worth of hard work that took place before the match to clear and dry one of the courts…just to make the match possible! Again, we thank the guys for that.
The Consequences: Now that Caputo/Pienciak have beaten the 2018 M2 Champs (Chiaro/Fernandes) and the 2018 Monk Memorial Champs (Valencia/Nair), they are now free to defend their Titles against any team ranked in the Doubles Division (if an unranked team were to beat them in a full 2 out of 3 Sets Non-Title Match, that team would become the New # 2 Ranked Team in the Doubles Division and next Top Contenders).
It should also be noted, however, that since this was their title defense in the month of October…that they are not obligated to do so again until April of 2019. But maybe they will succumb to the spirit of competition and good sportsmanship and take a challenge before then. That is entirely up to them.
And now let's get to how Part One of the M-Dub unfolded. It was Mr. Rizzo who detailed the process that took place in Cedar Grove, so we turn this report over to him now (in his words).
I arrived by 9:45 and three courts were wet (one was in use and was semi-dry). Several of us worked to dry the courts for 45 minutes. By 10:30 we took a vote on to play or cancel and it was 5-1 to go on with it (the ladies voted).
The lone dissenter agreed to then play if she could have the driest court. We wanted to ensure that everyone felt safe and comfortable playing before proceeding. After another 15 minutes of cleaning the courts, players started warming up and the tournament began around 11am. The choosing of partners then began blind lottery-style.
First, Doinks Srinivasan picked Justin DeJoseph. Next, Brenda Jordan picked Ryan Pienciak. Then, Dawn Peterson picked Nick Caputo. Next, Diane Raum picked Frank Hohorst. Then, Nicole Caputo picked Adam Pienciak. And finally, Emily Bock got Tom Heidt.
Since we had six teams, we decided to do a One-Set Eliminator Round so that everyone would have a chance to play in the First Round. The closest losing set score would be the 4th team ("The Lucky Losers") advancing to the next round which would then be 2 out of 3 Sets.
Sixth Seed versus Top Seed, One-Set Eliminator for the M-Dub:
Tom Heidt/Emily Bock over Justin DeJoseph/Doinks Srinivasan, 6-1! No Aces. It was the official GTA Debut of both Emily Bock and Justin DeJoseph.
Fifth Seed versus Second Seed, One-Set Eliminator for the M-Dub:
Adam Pienciak/Nicole Caputo over Ryan Pienciak/Brenda Jordan, 6-4! No Aces. This close loss enabled R. Pienciak/Jordan to also advance as the Lucky Losers.
Third Seed versus Fourth Seed, One-Set Eliminator for the M-Dub:
Nick Caputo/Dawn Peterson over Frank Hohorst/Diane Raum, 6-2! No Aces.
At this point (and thinking on the fly), we put the highest winning seeded lady's team versus the "Lucky Losers" in one Semi, and the other two winners faced off in the other Semi. There may have been a better way to do it, but this made the most sense (at least to me at the time).
M-Dub Part One Semifinal:
Nick Caputo/Dawn Peterson over Ryan Pienciak/Brenda Jordan, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 10-3 (STB), as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division while Caputo/Peterson advanced to the M-Dub Part One Finals (still TBD as to where this places them in the overall M-Dub Tournament)! No Aces.
The Riz Report: Nick and Dawn were up 5-3 in the 2nd Set and Nick served for the match at 5-4 only to be broken! The first Tiebreak was somewhat sloppy for Nick/Dawn' but they were on fire in the STB!
M-Dub Part One Semifinal:
Adam Pienciak/Nicole Caputo over Tom Heidt/Emily Bock, 6-2, 6-0, as both teams entered the Mixed Doubles Division while A. Pienciak/Caputo advanced to the M-Dub Part One Finals (still TBD as to where this places them in the overall M-Dub Tournament)! No Aces.
The Riz Report: This match was (cue the much overused phrase) "closer than the score indicates" with many good rallies. Emily is a friend of Nicole's who, like Nicole, is also coming off a 20 year layoff from tennis and played really well.
I believe the 12 people who played all had a good time. And for the ladies that did not make today, they can always play again next weekend.
Samara's Notes: I truly thank John for all his hard work organizing the format and then reporting it all in such a timely and comprehensive manner. One thing that he left out is the fact that after that One-Set Eliminator Round, he reached me to ask if those players eliminated after just one set of action could somehow return for the resumption of the tournament the following week.
Under normal circumstances, I would have declined this request…but these were not normal circumstances! So I agreed…besides we will likely need them to fill out the rest of the tourney if we are to try to even this up in three more locations (hoping for six teams in each place…thus, a total of 18 teams…and that means 18 men and 18 women…no small feat!).
Let's now get the rest of the action that took place up at Cedar Grove…a combined report courtesy of Jeff, Scott and Joe.
Nathan Fernandes/Natalia Sout over Jeff Rozner/Louise Bysiek, 6-1! No Aces.
The Gist from Jeff: We played again against Nate and Natalia, this time in a One-Setter. We did much better this time (lost 6-1 instead of 6-0, 6-0!). We wanted to play ANYONE ELSE who was still at Cedar Grove after the tournament matches ended, but they were all too tired leaving us with the impossible choice of Nate and Natalia.
Scott Bergenfeld over Dennis Cabanatan, 6-4! Scott: 1 Ace.
The Skinny from Scott: Then, Joe Rodrigues and Dino Celis rolled up to the courts. So, we decided to play a Doubles One-Setter.
Dino Celis/Dennis Cabanatan over Scott Bergenfeld/Joe Rodrigues, 7-5! No Aces.
The Skinny from Scott: By that time, Rafaelo Kazakov had arrived…so we rotated around.
Scott Bergenfeld/Joe Rodrigues over Dennis Cabanatan/Rafaelo Kazakov, 6-1! Scott: 2 Aces on Rafaelo!
The Skinny from Scott: That was the extent of the action at Cedar Grove. It was very humid and we were all soaked by 8:30pm!
Samara's Notes: I thank Scott for his timely and comprehensive reporting. Joe also reported the same.
We now go to Nutley and turn the rest of this report over to The Riz.
The NTC Results:
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Dan Hwang/Kyle Eng over John Rizzo/Alfred Chen, 6-1, 6-0, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 53 and # 54 Ranked Teams respectively! No Aces.
2 out of 3 Sets Doubles Match:
Kyle Eng/Alfred Chen over Dan Hwang/John Rizzo, 6-2, 6-2, as both teams entered the Doubles Division as the New # 55 and # 56 Ranked Teams respectively! No Aces.
The Riz Report: Unfortunately, I did not have much left to offer during this session (having played much tennis the night before and much involvement in structuring the tourney earlier in the day).
Samara's Notes: Again, I thank John for all his hard work as well as his timely reporting. It is greatly appreciated!
Sincerely,
Frank Samara
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